The present invention relates to a therapeutic animal toy particularly adapted for use by dogs and more particularly, to a dog tug toy. Various types and configurations of dog toys have been known and widely used for years. Examples of dog tug toys are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,476,086 and 3,830,202. Examples of dog chew toys are the conventional rawhide bone and chewable objects having flavor or odor extract incorporated therein as seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,771,733. Tug toys have proved to be very popular with dogs and provide beneficial playful exercise for dogs. Chew toys are also very popular and not only occupy the dogs' time and satisfy their desire to chew, but are beneficial to proper jaw and teeth development.
Recently, applicant developed a cotton-rope Chew toy marketed by applicant under the trademark, Booda Bones. While satisfying the chewing urge and being more durable than conventional rawhide bones, the Booda Bones chew toy provides both a flossing action on the dogs' teeth to gently clean the teeth and massages the gums, thereby preventing tartar build-up and Periodontal. While the cotton-rope Booda Bone toy provides substantial therapeutic benefits for dogs, the nature of the product itself as a chew toy does not lend itself to exercising the dog, other than its jaw. Conversely, the tug toys previously available do not provide the tooth cleaning and gum massaging benefits of the Booda Bone chew toy. In addition, such tug toys were not properly configured so as to be easily and comfortably gripped and held by a person while being tugged and twisted by the dog. The tug toy of the present invention combines the body exercising benefits of a tug toy with the therapeutic benefits of applicant's Booda Bones chew toy while being configured so as to be readily and comfortably held while a dog is vigorously tugging and twisting the device. In one embodiment of the invention, the device can be used by two dogs concurrently and comfortably held by one person.